5 TED Talks To Watch Before Heading To Law School

By Elana Goodwin on May 5, 2016

This article is brought to you by Kaplan, the leader in test prep for over 90 standardized tests, including the GRE, GMAT, LSAT, and MCAT.

If you’re thinking of going to law school or starting law school in the fall, you’ve no doubt done extensive research and read all about what to expect — but you may have missed some interesting and motivating resources: TED Talks.

There are a number of inspirational and enlightening TED Talks about being a lawyer, the legal system, justice, legal cases, etc., in addition to other talks that are pertinent to being a law student and a successful lawyer. Here are five TED Talks you should watch before going to law school.

Bryan Stevenson giving his TED talk.
Photo Credit: TED.com

1. Bryan Stevenson: ”We need to talk about an injustice.”

I was actually shown this video in a sociology class during my freshman year and it left an impression on me. In his personal and interesting talk, Stevenson, a human rights lawyer, shares some difficult realities about our justice system. The U.S. has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, and of those incarcerated, there is a huge racial discrepancy as a third of America’s black male population has been incarcerated at some point in their lives. But our system is not just distorted by race — it’s also distorted by wealth; those who are rich and guilty will be treated much better than those who are poor and innocent.

Stevenson goes on to talk about how our society is experiencing a disconnect as most people don’t really care about or pay attention to these difficult problems and that not caring puts our identity at risk. Ultimately, our humanity depends on everyone’s humanity; we won’t be judged on our technology, intellect, etc. but rather on our character, which is how we treat the poor, condemned and incarcerated. Stevenson is an engaging speaker who makes excellent points about the state of our society and his TED Talk will make you that much more aware of the injustices you’ll be facing and dealing with in the world.

2. Kimberly Motley: ”How I defend the rule of law.”

Motley, an international litigator, is the only Western litigator in Afghanistan’s courts. She originally went to Afghanistan on a nine-month program to train Afghan lawyers, during which she went around the country and talked to hundreds of people who were locked up as well as many businesses operating in Afghanistan. Motley began to see how laws that were supposed to protect people and businesses were being underused in favor of harsh and illegal punishing measures. She shares three cases from her practice to show how these injustices put her on a journey to justness, which to her means using the laws for their intended purpose, which is to protect.

Motley decided to open up a private practice and became the first foreign litigator in Afghan courts. She credits her success to a very simple fact: she works the system from the inside out and uses the laws the way they’re intended to be used. Motley’s TED Talk is inspiring, even if you don’t intend to go into human rights work (much like Motley didn’t); her speech will encourage you to be a just and fair lawyer, and will motivate you to want to use the law for its intended purpose.

3. Alan Siegel: “Let’s simplify legal jargon!”

Siegel is currently the CEO of brand identity consultancy group Siegelvision, which he founded in 2012. Before starting Siegelvision, he was the founder of global brand strategy firm Siegel+Gale, for which he is still Chairman Emeritus. Siegel has long been a leading advocate for plain English to be used to simplify complicated financial and legal documents and was hired by the IRS in 1979 to help revise tax forms, which resulted in the 1040-EZ form.

In his TED Talk, Siegel argues that paperwork like tax forms, credit agreements, and other important documents shouldn’t be overly long and filled with legalese that’s hard for people to understand. Instead, he calls for plain English to be used to make these papers accessible and intelligible to everyone. Siegel believes that we need to make clarity, transparency and simplicity a national priority in order to change the world. After watching his talk, you’ll have more insight into how legal paperwork and agreements can be hard to understand and have that much more patience and empathy when dealing with it and clients down the line.

4. Scott Fraser: “Why eyewitnesses get it wrong.”

This is a very interesting TED Talk about how eyewitnesses can be unreliable in court. While it may not end up being applicable to all law students depending on what type of law you intend to go into, it’s a fascinating speech about how five people see the same crime yet all report different stories, though none of them are lying. The memory has gaps which the people then unconsciously fill in order to report what they think happened.

Fraser, a forensic psychologist, analyzes how people remember crimes and how witnesses can often get things wrong. He warns that we should be cautious in believing our and others’ memories, especially when the stakes are high. Even if you don’t intend to be the kind of lawyer who will deal with eyewitnesses, Fraser’s speech is still a good one to watch before law school as it may prove to be helpful in a class and will also push you to question more when dealing with legal cases.

5. Philip K. Howard: ”Four ways to fix a broken legal system.”

Howard kicks off his TED Talk by stating that he believes the law is a powerful driver of human behavior and that there’s a need to overhaul and simplify the law in order to allow Americans to release their full potential. Over the past several decades, rather than the law being a foundation of freedom, it’s turned our country into a legal minefield, according to Howard. We are no longer able to freely act on our best judgement as our culture has changed — people don’t trust the law since it’s overly detailed and anyone can sue for pretty much anything. In order to rebuild that trust the people have in the law, it needs to be simplified so people can easily use it in their daily choices.

The easiest way to do this is a shift in philosophy, Howard argues, from thinking authority is the enemy of freedom to understanding that authority is needed so that judges and officials have the ability to interpret and apply the law. Howard’s speech will make you look at the legal system in a new way and think about how it got so broken and the steps needed to fix it.

If you haven’t already seen these TED Talks and are thinking about law school or heading there soon, I highly recommend you spend some time watching them — they may just leave quite the impression on you and make you that much more prepared for law school and to be a lawyer.

Learn more about Kaplan’s test prep options and start building the confidence you need for Test Day.

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